10 Highest-Grossing '80s Movies Ranked Worst To Best

Year: 1984

Box Office: $238 million

Somewhat atypically for an effects-heavy movie from the early 80s, Ghostbuster's aging has never been an issue for its fans, who are beyond legion. In fact, there's a sort of roguish charm to the clunky visuals (particularly in the hellhound sequences). And really, a lot of the effects sequences still stand-up thanks to pragmatic practical effects practices.

And while it is buoyed by an incredible concept, the real pleasure in Ghostbusters is in the cast, with the four main team-members each representing a different point on the Alignment System and Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts and Rick Moranis (in partiuclar) stealing a lot of the show in support.

What the recent sort-of-remake of Ghostbusters fundamentally did not understand about the Ivan Reitman-directed original is that it was essentially a straight movie in which funny things incidentally happen (mostly thanks to the charitable writing of Bill Murray's character and his interactions with the other, straighter guys). But then, on reflection, the idea that anyone thought they could ever hope to recapture the magic of the original is just ludicrous.

As a mark of its cultural significance, not only is it in the National Film Registry (along with a few others on this list), but it's also the only movie from the 1980s to have a dinosaur named after it.